A leading advocate in human rights has criticised Sydney’s Archbishop of the Anglican Church for comments linking same-sex marriage to polygamy and incest.
Director of advocacy for Human Rights Watch and former Dutch MP Boris Dittrich said he recalled similar tactics being used in the Netherlands 10 years ago.
‘In Holland religious leaders tried to scare the general public by stating that same sex marriage would lead to accepting polygamy,’ Dittrich said in a statement.
‘These arguments were dismissed by the government. And Holland hasn’t seen polygamy in the 10 years after same sex marriage was introduced in 2001.’
Anglican Archbishop Dr Peter Jensen wrote in the Church’s newspaper, Southern Cross of how allowing gay marriage would normalise homosexuality in society.
‘Ensuring public honour of same-sex relationships by calling them marriages is an abuse of marriage itself,’ Jensen said.
‘This claim for a right to be married could open the way for other forms, such as polygamous marriages or perhaps even marriage between immediate family members.’
Australian Marriage Equality spokesperson Alex Greenwich said proposed amendments to the Marriage Act would not force the Anglican Church to marry gay couples, just the celebrants who wish to marry people.
‘I can respectfully assure Archbishop Jenson that, should the discrimination against same-sex couples be removed from the Marriage Act, the Anglican Church will still be able to refuse to marry same-sex couples’, Greenwich said.
‘The Archbishop should acknowledge we live in a secular, multi-faith society, and as such he must understand that his views should not be imposed on those religions that want to perform same-sex marriages, such as the Quakers and progressive Synagogues, or the civil celebrants who perform 67% of all marriages.’
Mr Greenwich also pointed out that the Archbishop’s comments were contradicted by the international experience:
‘Not one of the alarmist predications made by the Archbishop have come to pass in any of the countries that allow same-sex marriages to take place, including Catholic Spain, Portugal and Argentina.’
OIP writers
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